The Relative Importance of Various Macro-environmental and Organisation Factors in Influencing Buying Decisions

Abstract

This study investigated the relative influence of varous organizational and macro-environmental influences on the purchase decisions of different categories of selected manufacturing firms within Nairobi. Purchasing Managers of various firms or those responsible for the purchasing task in various organizations were asked to rank/rate the factors in terms of how much influence they perceived each to have on the organizational purchase decisions. Data was collected and mean scores then computed for each of the factors in terms of the amount of influence each had in the final purchase decision. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was then used to determine whether the mean scores of the factors were statistically different or not. The findings of the analysis led the researcher to draw certain conclusions which are: • Within any organization different factors have a different level of influence. • As expected, Purchasing department is the department most involved in each purchase. However as purchases become more complex, the Board of Directors and the Accounting Department become more involved in the purchase decision. • Amongst the macro-environmental variables, the factors which have most influence in the purchase decision are the supplier qualities. Since different factors have different levels of influence within organizations, for any marketing programme to succeed in an industrial set up, the marketer must direct his/her efforts at the most influential factors.